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Dateline: 25th August, 2002 The International Festival of Musical
Theatre in Cardiff Cy Coleman, the award winning composer of, amongst others, Sweet Charity, City of Angels and Seesaw, will host and perform in an evening of his music that will incorporate stars from some of his shows. This special concert will be held on Tuesday 22 October at St. David's Hall at 7.30pm. Leading the Festival as the main musical is a new production of Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart's Babes In Arms at The New Theatre from 16 - 26 October. Since its first performance on Broadway in 1937 many of the numbers have become legendary hits - Babes In Arms, My Funny Valentine and The Lady is a Tramp. This new adaptation by Martin Conner was tried out to great acclaim by the Guildhall School of Music and has the backing of the Rodgers and Hart estate. (Casting to be announced shortly). Richard Rodgers is the featured artist at this inaugural Festival and to coincide with celebrations for the Richard Rodgers' Centennial there will be a variety of Rodgers' music performed, including a concert version of Carousel with a cast of singers from Broadway and the West End and the National Youth Music Theatre's production of Oklahoma! The Festival has also caught the imagination of music lovers around the world as initial bookings to date show a spread of ticket sales coming as far a field as America to Australia. The Global Search for New Musicals attracted nearly 200 entries from 16 different countries, nine of which will be staged at the Sherman Theatre in three Sony Showcases. The BBC Radio 2 Voice of Musical Theatre semi-finals and finals will be broadcast live from the Festival on BBC Radio 2. Amongst many highlights of the Festival there will be the eagerly awaited European premiere of Terrence McNally, Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens' Ragtime The Musical. Direct from Prague, and sung in Czech, Ta Fantastika Theatre perform their original musical Joan of Arc. African rhythms and harmonies are combined with contemporary sounds in Welshman Charlie Barber's Afrodisiac. Combining fragments of Vietnamese river chants, the singing of Aboriginal children and other human sounds, 5000 Calls is a work composed of everyday vocalisations originally commissioned by the Olympic Park Authority in Sydney. The hugely popular Opera Babes join a long list of notable performers at the Festival that also includes Graham Bickley, Janie Dee, Tim Flavin, Maria Friedman, Philip Quast, Clive Rowe and Dave Willetts. Richard Stilgoe's highly original devised piece, Exit Allan, brings together disabled and able-bodied students from The Orpheus Trust and the Guildford School of Acting. Stanwell School will give the European premiere of the School Edition of Les Misérables that has been specially adapted to meet the needs of young performers. A gala performance of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Requiem in Llandaff Cathedral will close the Festival. The programme also includes the annual conference of the Theatrical Management Association together with delegates from America's National Alliance for Musical Theatre, writer masterclasses, talks, exhibitions, musical theatre in film as well as late night jazz and cabaret. Booking is now open for most events. Please note that all three Archive indices are very long and will therefore take some time to download.
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